Heba Atwa
Posts by Heba Atwa
Our take on bills filed this session by NC General Assembly
We’ve been tracking all the bills filed over the 2025 and 2026 biennial budget session and wanted to share with you our take on: Bills that have the potential to fund a better future Bills that make people’s lives easier today Bills that advance an important goal for NC but by design fall short Bills…
It’s time for a Well-Being Budget in North Carolina
What if progress and prosperity in our state was not defined by measures like the GDP or stock market, but by indicators that measure the level of well-being for all North Carolinians? North Carolina’s workers power our economy – they grow and harvest our food, care for and educate our children, and research and develop new medicines and technologies that improve our lives. Building a North…
Slide deck: NC General Assembly Session Summary 2025
The NC General Assembly is done for the year. They missed the mark on addressing North Carolina’s priorities this session. Check out this slide deck summarizing the 2025 Long Session and where legislative leaders fell short. Download the PDF here.
House Bill 859: Local Govts/Guaranteed Income Programs
Download a PDF of this brief Blocks local governments from running popular and effective guaranteed income programs HB 859 Summary: This bill prohibits local governments from initiating or running guaranteed income programs that provide people with payments with no strings attached. Further limits the ability of local lawmakers to make choices about the use of…
House Bill 181: Tax Relief for Working Families Act
Download a PDF of this Brief Letting families keep more of what they earn and correcting our upside-down tax code HB 181 Summary: Proposes a fully refundable state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) at a value of 20 percent of the federal credit and uses the same eligibility requirements. Refundable tax credits are a commonsense…
House Bill 178: Budgeting Accountability and Transparency
Download a PDF of this brief Makes our state budget process more open and fair HB 178 Summary: Adopts rules around the state budget process to require public notice, opportunities for comment, and time for review of budget documents by lawmakers and the public alike. The current state budget process is rushed and happens mostly…
House Bill 142: Implement Zero-Based Budgeting
Download this Brief as a PDF A costly budget approach that doesn’t guarantee better outcomes for the public’s money HB 142 Summary: Implements zero-based budgeting beginning with the executive branch in 2027 and establishing it as standard practice for the entire state budget in FY 2031-33. Complexity of zero-based budgeting leads to higher costs that…
Funding elections protects sacred act of voting
Casting a ballot is a sacred act — it is done on the shoulders of our collective ancestry, ancestors out of whose centuries long subjugation and disenfranchisement was born a vow to build a system in which all people would participate in the administration of our government and the shaping of our future.
Increase in NC’s Work First cash assistance program would help families meet basic needs
North Carolina’s Work First program benefit has stayed the same since 1996, even as the costs of rent, food and other basics have increased. A program that is meant to provide support to households in crisis and struggling to move out of poverty provides such meager cash assistance that families are still left below the poverty line.
A NC EITC supports working families whose earnings don’t meet the costs of basics
State-level tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit would return more of what low- and moderate-income North Carolinians earn and would benefit the health and well-being of parents and children, along with improving child education and future earnings outcomes.